Introduction
Kosovo is currently the only Luxembourg Development Cooperation country in the Balkans. Following the 1999 conflict, Luxembourg first focused on humanitarian aid and reconstruction, and then implemented development cooperation programmes from 2001 onwards. A cooperation office was opened in 1999, and was upgraded to an embassy in 2013.
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The current cooperation agreement (2017-2020), signed on 24 October 2016, has a financial envelope of EUR 30 million and has been automatically renewed until the end of 2022. The projects in Kosovo focus on the health, vocational training and European integration sectors.
In a discussion held on 29 June 2021 between Donika Gërvalla (Kosovo’s Minister for Foreign Affairs) and Franz Fayot (Luxembourg’s Minister for Cooperation and Humanitarian Action), the two parties took stock of the projects implemented by Luxembourg Development Cooperation and agreed on the priority actions needed in the fields of health, vocational training and European integration. They also indicated new avenues to be explored as relations between Luxembourg and Kosovo diversify. Among other areas, these avenues include economic cooperation, including the private sector, start-ups and digitisation, which are priority sectors for Kosovo and are areas in which Luxembourg has a certain degree of expertise.
Taking into consideration this discussion and Kosovo’s reclassification as a middle-income country, Luxembourg Development Cooperation carried out a prospective and strategic study on development cooperation designed to identify potential avenues for future cooperation and the diversification of relations between Luxembourg and Kosovo.
Development of PDA
Kosovo experienced a high incidence of COVID-19 in 2021 and was the last country in Europe to have access to the vaccine. The shortage of vaccines worldwide, and specifically in Europe, the delays experienced by COVAX and the absence of Russian and Chinese vaccines in Kosovo (unlike the other five countries in the Western Balkans) meant that the first vaccines were not administered in Kosovo until April 2021. Misinformation campaigns about the vaccine led to considerable vaccine hesitancy in Kosovo, and the Kosovar government had to refuse donations of some vaccines. Despite these difficulties, the vaccination rate in Kosovo has now risen to one of the highest in the region. Nevertheless, there is still an enormous problem with forged vaccination and PCR test certificates.
Finally, the pandemic has also revealed the state of Kosovo’s health system, which is in need of comprehensive reform and substantial investment.